Real-world consequences of Trump-world fantasies
True story.
Some guy from Utah decided to kill former U.S. Senator and current MSNBC political analyst, Claire McCaskill.
So he got in his vehicle and started driving.
His plan fell apart when he decided it would also be a good idea to drive his vehicle in excess of 130 MPH during a snowstorm. The highway patrol tends to notice and frown on that sort of behavior and stopped him by spiking his tires.
He had an empty 12-pack of beer in the vehicle, another partially-consumed 12 pack, told the highway patrol he was on LSD, Adderall and beer and also threatened McCaskill several times, because apparently threatening to kill her once didn’t make a big enough impression. He was booked into jail on Wednesday and is facing charges that include making a terrorist threat, speeding, drug possession and DUI.
So not exactly a criminal mastermind…also, not exactly an isolated incident.
The story about the guy never explained what his motivation was, so you can’t blame Donald Trump — yet — but it did remind me of another story from earlier this year.
You might recall a group of knuckleheads decided to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and apparently that plot was hatched by anti-government, pro-gun groups protesting Whitmer’s COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. That idea also didn’t work out so hot and if you take a look at their mugshots, the aspiring kidnappers do not appear to be Phi Beta Kappa material.
That plot is tied a little closer to Trump’s influence because he had sent out a tweet in support of “liberating” Minnesota, Virginia and Michigan. Dana Nessel, Michigan’s top law enforcement official had this to say about Trump’s tweet:
“I really shuddered and was horrified. I mean, liberate Michigan from who? And by what means? When you say ‘liberate,’ you know, that is a call to action. It's a rallying cry. And I think it's a call to arms. And that's really, I think, what it turned out to be.”
Here’s part of what Gov. Whitmer had to say:
“I think that that kind of tells you how the rhetoric really can have horrible, disastrous, dangerous consequences for others.”
I started thinking about these two stories when I was reading about Donald Trump’s election lawsuits and here’s why.
Trump’s accusing a bunch of election officials – both Democrats and Republicans – of being part of a nationwide plot to cheat him out of the presidency.
Trump specifically accused Philadelphia election official Al Schmidt – a Republican – of ignoring “a mountain of corruption & dishonesty.” Twitter added a label to Trump’s tweet that said the election fraud claim was disputed, but that didn’t stop some idiots from sending death threats to Schmidt’s office.
Here’s part of what Schmidt said during a 60 Minutes interview:
“From the inside looking out, it feels all very deranged. Counting votes on or before Election Day by eligible voters is not corruption. It is not cheating. It is democracy.”
A couple days ago I wrote that there were reasons to vote for Donald Trump that didn’t include being a racist, a sexist or a moron and I still believe that’s true. But there are racists, sexists and morons among Trump supporters and he’s turning them loose on the nation.
Think about it:
If you’re a screw-up, all your life somebody in authority has been telling you what to do; finish your homework, floss your teeth and don’t drive 130 MPH during a snowstorm.
And now you’ve finally got a president who is telling you it’s OK to ignore authority; don’t wear a mask, to hell with social distancing and if you don’t like election results, refuse to accept them. If you wonder why some people love Trump so much, I believe this is at least part of the explanation.
But as former Justice Department elections official and current Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt said about these election lawsuits:
“This may be an attempt to appease the ego in chief, but there are real world consequences for real people that come out of that. The attempt to soothe the president’s ego is not a victimless crime.”
Because of what Trump is doing, people are having their reputations and lives threatened.
Off the record plenty of Republicans will admit Trump doesn’t have much chance of succeeding at overturning the election results, but it allows Trump to keep saying he didn’t lose, he got cheated and fires up his supporters.
Problem is, some of those supporters are idiots and the last thing this country needs right now is more highly-motivated morons.
As the cartoon suggests, a bunch of Republicans are enabling Donald Trump’s fantasies and Trump-world fantasies are having real-world consequences.